Love this game, I'm so happy to have it again! It takes a bit to get used to the controls. This is one of the games that got me into PC gaming. Now we need Black & White!!

Long story short, EA bought BULLFROG. That was just their thing back in the late 90s – they were buying everybody who had some of them big names on a market. They've got ORIGIN (Ultima series), they've got Westwood (Command & Conquer) and, well, they've got BULLFROG. Also, soon after the original Dungeon Keeper was made, it's project leader, Peter Molyneux, left the company to found Lionhead Studios. Which will give us Black & White and Fable, but this here is not a story of Peter Molyneux and Lionhead. This here is a story of a name that was left under EA without its fathers. And it's... a pretty interesting story to tell.

Like I said, Peter Molyneux was no more. Who did EA replace him with? It was Nick Goldsworthy. And it's important to mention because of his previous work – a city-building strategy called Beasts & Bumpkins. Never heard of it? Go check it out. It's a brilliant game and personally, I'm a huge fan. Think funny take on Caesar and that'll be it. And that's the important part – Beasts & Bumpkins being funny. EA replaced Peter with a man, whose previous game was humorous. It may sound like a terrible move, but it actually made sense. The original Dungeon Keeper, while having a deep atmosphere, had lots of humor in it, while aside from other things, Nick also worked on PlayStation version of Warhammer: Dark Omen. Which was a pretty dark game, so... Yeah. Sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately... Let's just say Dungeon Keeper 2 feels nothing like the original.

Again, Dungeon Keeper had lots of humor in it. But it was also dark. And that's exactly what Dungeon Keeper 2 doesn't have. In other words, Warhammer left the chat. Dungeon Keeper 2 is bright, Dungeon Keeper 2 is colorful and, well, it's Beasts & Bumpkins. Which... doesn't feel terrible (especially since the game went fully 3D), but when you compare it with the original, it's hard not to notice just how much better the atmosphere there was. Even the core design became heavily different and looks more like something from Moorhuhn series (you know, the game, in which you shoot chickens). And yes, this game has chickens too. A lot of 'em. And that's the first serious problem about it. The thing is – the new team totally overdid it with silly jokes. Every campaign mission ends with a comedy sketch of sorts and let's... just say that those aren't really that good. I know, I know, humor is a subjective thing, but seriously, those cutscenes are bad and most of the time they just repeat the same exact joke (you guessed it, it's about chickens) again and again (and again). But OK. They've ruined the atmosphere. What about the gameplay? Well......

Don't get me wrong, Dungeon Keeper 2 is not a bad game. If something, it fixed lots of original's problems. Workshop, for example, will not automatically produce stuff and let you choose what you need instead, spells won't require money to cast and use the new currency – mana, etc. But in a way? In a way sequel feels pretty dumbed down. The creature limit became much more strict (in the original game, the number of creatures you can control was defined by current map's script, while in Dungeon Keeper 2 portal allows only fifteen creatures, plus the additional five per every other portal you claim), creatures don't have conflicts between them anymore, while the maps became smaller, thanks to which you'll need to count every single tile. Dungeon Keeper never had a console version, but this here? It sure feels like one (hello, Warhammer).

Doesn't sound fun, huh? Well, like I said, Dungeon Keeper 2 is still good (I mean, bad, since like in the original game we're the bad guys). But that's just the thing about it. While the original was designed to be more like old-school RTS fun (while being pretty unique and adding a great feeling of exploration to the formula), its sequel is more puzzle-like. Every campaign mission here is a test with only one correct solution most of the time (if we won't count some tricks that is). You can't just do what you do / enjoy best. At some point, the game will test your knowledge / skill with pretty much everything, even that possession spell that is still a thing. There's also an alternative single player mode – so-called “pet dungeon”, which wants you to achieve certain score to win. It sure helps, but not by much. It only has a few missions and all in all can't replace what we had in the original's campaign. Which, despite its rough edges here and there, is still superior to what we have here.

Thankfully, there's still multiplayer. And originally, Bullfrog had plans for whooping thirteen players. Unfortunately, those plans were scrapped and we only got up to four in the final product. Moreover, since it's EA we talking about, the official servers were shut down soon after release. Thankfully, unlike the original, Dungeon Keeper 2 has multiplayer based on TCP/IP protocol (the original had Serial, Modem and IPX, with Modem support being removed from Direct 3D version), which means that technically you can still play with friends. Would you want it, though? Nah. Multiplayer in Dungeon Keeper 2 is buggy and pretty unstable on modern rigs (this version here is identical to the GOG one and uses their wrapper, which means it'll work perfectly fine for single player with better zoom by default, but of course, GOG weren't on a mission to save multiplayer). And since the original Dungeon Keeper got heavily improved fan-made version called KeeperFX that also supports multiplayer via TCP/IP protocol (also, ENET/UDP), there's no reason to bother with a sequel.

So... Yeah. That's Dungeon Keeper 2 for you. Again, I'm not trying to say it's a bad game. It's just... it does feel like a console version. Slightly more polished, yet overall simplified take on the original Team Molyneux concept. Should you play it? Well, yeah. We don't have many of such games even today, when there are some spiritual successors, while all in all, despite all the “buts”, it's a pretty solid game. But you know how it is. There are games that make you return to them again and again and there are games that you beat once and forget about. When it's about the first Keeper? I keep returning to it, like, every year. To me, it's one of those games. DOOM, Diablo, Command & Conquer... That old stuff you install on every machine you have. Dungeon Keeper 2? Something's telling me that I won't return to it any time soon.

But you know what? Doesn't matter. This game serves as some sort of prologue to the next one. Our goal during campaign is to collect enough of so-called portal gems in order to finally leave the dungeon and start conquering overworld (hence the name of the third game – Dungeon Keeper 3: War for the Overworld). Dungeon Keeper 2 is even pre-packed with the official trailer, which you'll find in the extras section of the main menu. Clearly they'll fix all the problems in the third game, right? Right? Well, no. Like I said, EA happened. And as usual, EA just did their thing. They've canceled the project and moved our guys to work on them Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter games. What can I say? 100 points to Slitherine.

We should never forgive EA for what they did to Bullfrog. I hope EA get woke AF so that they go bankrupt.